An "independent and determined" nan died after the family car she was getting out of rolled back down the driveway and pinned her to the ground.
June Murray was a passenger in her son's partner's black Ford Kuga when the accident occurred on December 18, 2020- North Wales Live reports. The 76-year-old had been picked up from her home to come and stay the night with her son and his partner at their home in Llandudno - something she would do every other Friday.
On their way to Llandudno the pair stopped at a McDonald's to pick up takeaway meals. When they arrived at her son's home, his partner Georgina Elizabeth Jones went into the house with the takeaway meals, leaving Mrs Murray in the car. As she went back towards the car, Ms Jones said she saw the passenger door open and heard Mrs Murray shouting as the car was rolling backwards.
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Ms Jones said she saw Mrs Murray fall to the ground as the car began to roll over her. In a statement read out at the inquest held at Ruthin County Hall on Wednesday (June 1), she said the car stopped rolling as the front near wheel got onto Mrs Murray's body. As she saw the accident unfold, Ms Jones said she was initially unsure what to do before she slowly moved the car off of Mrs Murray using the bite of the clutch.
The accident occurred at 6.18pm and a large emergency response arrived at the scene shortly afterwards. A critical care practitioner who arrived at the scene at 6.59pm as part of the air ambulance rapid response said that Mrs Murray had suffered injuries to her chest, pelvis, spine and had to be given a blood transfusion before being taken in the ambulance.
Mrs Murray, who was described by her family as an independent and determined woman, then went into cardiac arrest and could not be saved despite attempts to resuscitate her. She was pronounced dead at 7.47pm at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and a cause of death of acute heart failure due to heart disease and chest injury was heard at the inquest following the findings of a post-mortem examination conducted by Dr Muhammad Aslam.
Gordon Saynor, a forensic collision investigator for North Wales Police, appeared as witness at the inquest. Mr Saynor said there were no mechanical defects with the Ford Kuga and while conditions at the scene on December 18 were wet, the environment was discounted as a causal factor in the accident.
Instead, the investigation returned three hypotheses as to what caused the car to roll back. The first suggested that the car's handbrake, which was a manual handbrake, was not applied; the second suggested that the handbrake was partially applied and the car began to roll from the bodily pressure of Mrs Murray exiting the vehicle; the third suggested that the handbrake was fully applied and that Mrs Murray had inadvertently disengaged it as she was climbing out of the car.
Ms Jones, who had owned the car for around two years before the accident, said in her statement that she was absolutely sure that she had left the handbrake up before she exited the car. She added that she would normally pull it up with the release button pressed in until it was tight and would leave the car in neutral.
According to Mr Saynor, Ford says that Kuga drivers should not press the release button as they pull up the handbrake. The investigator also noted that the car should also have been left in first gear rather than neutral due to the gradient of the driveway, despite it being barely noticeable at just two degrees.
Ms Jones said in her statement that about a year earlier the car had rolled down the driveway and onto the A470 dual carriageway. The car had been parked by her son on that occasion with the handbrake pulled up but this could not be considered as part of the investigation due to a lack of evidence, Mr Saynor said.
Kate Sutherland, assistant coroner for North Wales east and central, said the accident occurred after Mrs Murray "got out of an initially stationary vehicle which, for reasons unknown, collided with her as she exited" . Ms Sutherland said the incident, which she described as a "tremendous tragedy", was completely unintended and unexpected and concluded that the death was an accident.
Outside the court, Mrs Murray's family said her death was a "tragic accident" before expressing their gratitude to the coroner, the emergency services, and Mr Saynor in particular for his thorough investigation.
